By 1968, the Whirlpool (consisting of Vance Chapman on lead vocals and drums, Bob Steurer on vocals, Mike Smyth on lead guitar and vocals, and Lance Cornelius on bass guitar and vocals) had played a lot of shows, but had no recording contract to show for their efforts. This was about to change when Michael Brown came along. Having been heavily involved with The Left Banke during their hit making days (he had written or co-written “Walk Away Renee” and “Pretty Ballerina”), Brown had left the group amidst continual power struggles and disagreements about the band’s direction. Brown found himself in a situation where he had a musical vision, but no band to help him make it a reality.
How The Whirlpool met up with Brown is not quite clear all these years later, but Vance remembers the audition very well.
I forget who put Mike onto us, but he and wife Joyce Norden Brown (who later became our manager) came to a rehearsal we were doing in the recreation room of my father's basement. [We auditioned with] approximately 30 minutes of varied tunes, from Mitch Ryder’s “Devil With A Blue Dress On” to Gerry and the Pacemakers’ “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying.” Some Beatles stuff too, of course.
I remember that we were all nervous because Mike was "big-time" and we were nobodies so we'd better not blow it. I told the other guys that Mike would probably hate us anyway, so just play and be done with it. That seemed to calm the nerves at least a little. As it turned out, Mike liked what he heard - at least the vocals.
Mike said he'd be in touch with us. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe he also alluded to possibly working with John Abbott and Laurie Records, which of course we ultimately did. I'm convinced that he had already mapped out the Montage album and just needed The Montage.
At this point, one can’t help but wonder how the name change from Whirlpool to Montage came about. As Vance recollects:
I'm almost positive it was our manager Joyce Norden Brown who came up with the name, because I remember her telling us that the definition of the word is what we in fact were doing-- presenting a widely varied array of songs, from the gentleness of “Tinsel And Ivy” to the nuclear warhead detonation in “Wake Up, Jimmy!”
Having passed their audition, the newly christened Montage began rehearsing with Brown.
When we first got together with Mike in his Englewood, New Jersey home, many of the songs that were to be on the album were already written but not arranged for us, especially the vocals. There was much rehearsal work to be done before we ever saw the studio. Months were required to rehearse the lead and background vocals and harmonies, in order to have the songs ready to record. When we finally walked into Allegro Studios in New York City, we were ready enough to perform the songs without wasting studio time.
Mike was easy to work with, both in rehearsal and in the studio. I remember late nights at the piano after the others had gone home, when the two of us would go over leads, harmonies and how the songs would be presented on recordings and in live performances. I learned a lot about writing songs then. During the days, Bert Sommer would be there to make subtle lyric changes, tell jokes and make fun of us. Tom Feher (now Tom Fair) was also around to do the same. It was a light-hearted atmosphere but a good working one.
[Mike’s] role was all encompassing. He sat at the piano in his huge Englewood home and played the songs - emphasizing the melodies that he wanted us to do. At one point he said he had a challenge for me. He played a melody [“She’s Alone”] that went all over the place and gave me the words of the first line, "She picks the mirror off the floor and then she sees - her husband who's been dead now for seventeen years...” Then he said, "Can you sing that?” I mentioned that the lyrics were pretty weird. "But can you sing it?" I did and he was very impressed, saying that he didn't think he would find anyone who could hit all of the notes on key every time. So I started singing it over and over and over until he went into his Jack Benny routine and said, "Now, CUT THAT OUT!"
Throughout most of 1968, Montage and Michael Brown rehearsed and recorded the tracks, which eventually led to their self-titled album. The final running order was:
- “I Shall Call Her Mary”
- “She’s Alone”
- “Grand Pianist”
- “Men Are Building Sand”
- “Desiree”
- “The Song Is Love”
- “Tinsel and Ivy”
- “An Audience With Miss Priscilla Gray”
- “My Love”
- “Wake Up Jimmy (Something’s Happening Outside)”
Although the band members didn’t contribute any material for the album, they did offer input concerning the vocal arrangements. In the end, Michael Brown decided that Vance should sing lead on most of the songs. “Men Are Building Sand”, “The Song Is Love”, and “Miss Priscilla Gray” feature Bob Steurer on lead vocals, while Vance sang the remaining seven tracks. When asked if the tracks were recorded with a lot of overdubbing or as live as possible, Vance responded:
Mostly as live as possible. For instance, I would record a lead vocal by myself and then get with the other guys to do the harmonies/backgrounds (as a group) immediately thereafter. The strings and other instruments were done by studio musicians - all playing together at the same time. Very little multi-tracking was used, yet there were quite a few people involved. I only played my drums (I was a drummer then; I play keyboard now) on one of the songs (“The Song Is Love”).
Most of the material was written or co-written by Brown. The one track that he didn’t write almost didn’t make it on the album:
Tom [Feher] wrote "My Love" and the first time I heard it, I wanted to do it on the album. For some reason Mike didn't want it on there, and he and I went back and forth about it for a while until I said (jokingly), "Well, if I can't sing THAT song on the album, I don't want to sing ANY songs on the album." He said he'd think about it. Obviously it was included, and I remember going into another room to tell Tom that we were going to do it. Tom was glad to hear that, and the harpsichord parts which Mike put on those tracks made the song much better than even I had expected.
Surprisingly, given the bitter aftertaste that the Left Banke experience might have left, Brown included a cover of the single “Desiree” on the Montage album. As Vance recalls:
The most vivid memory I have is when I came down with the flu during the recording of “Desiree.” I could barely sing, and the higher notes were killing me. But the schedule wouldn't allow sick time, so I got through it as well as I could. To this day I wince when I hear my vocal on that.
The end result was a ten-track album that ran under 30 minutes, but contained many high points for fans of the Left Banke sound, or ‘60s music in general.
My favorite three songs are "Grand Pianist", "My Love" and "I Shall Call Her Mary" (Note: My fiancée’s name was "Merry", and you can hear that I didn't always pronounce the name "Mary" exactly as it's pronounced.). The song that disappointed me the most was "Men Are Building Sand". Obviously an expression of discontent over urban/suburban sprawl, it nevertheless contained that awful note. I argued that nobody would ever understand that the note was there deliberately; it would be perceived as a terribly sour one that happened to slip through the cracks - and reflect negatively on the singer (Bob Steurer). But the note remained, and I rest my case.
Those who are familiar with the Montage album know of this infamous note. In all fairness to everyone involved, especially the vocal talents of Bob Steurer, it should be stated that the note in question, albeit odd sounding, was intentional. To say that Michael Brown experimented with unusual vocal arrangements is an understatement, but when they were combined in the right way, the results could be downright magical. “Men Are Building Sand” is the one track on the Montage LP where the vocals should have probably been arranged or mixed a little bit differently, but for whatever reason they weren’t.
Vance’s point was confirmed in 1992 when Mercury released the Left Banke compilation There’s Gonna Be A Storm. It contained a previously unreleased version of “Men Are Building Sand” by The Left Banke. The vocal arrangements are very similar (including the aforementioned note), but the vocals are double tracked, and the mix itself does more justice to the vocals, with much more aurally pleasing results. Had the Montage version been mixed in a similar way, the results would have been quite different.
Otherwise, the final mix of the album was mostly well received. Overall, the band felt “pretty good” about the end result.
In terms of sound I had only one complaint, and that was over Mike's decision to use no echo or enhancement on the vocal tracks. He wanted them recorded "dry" as a demonstration of how we didn't need any help in that regard. While the idea was flattering in an ego sense, I maintained that we should have at our disposal at least the tools that were utilized by everyone else. We were, in fact, unknowns and I felt that omitting such a basic vocal advantage was putting us at a disadvantage before we even started. I'm still convinced of that and would love to hear another mix of the album with just a moderate amount of echo on the vocals.
But I still had the same concerns I had voiced while it was being recorded. The absence of echo on the vocal tracks was a very big mistake in my opinion. The "terrible note" in “Men Are Building Sand” received the reaction I had said it would. Some people think it's a major error that was somehow overlooked. Others don't care if it's supposed to be there or not -- they think it just sounds awful, and so do I. A band's first album should not be the vehicle for experiments like that. Again, my opinion. But the album as a whole has a feel that won't be found anywhere else, and the songs are great.
Laurie Records released Montage in 1969. In earlier years, Laurie was known for releasing huge hits by groups such as the Chiffons, the Royal Guardsmen, and Dion (both with and without the Belmonts). The label’s salad days were mostly in the past by the time the Montage album came out. There was not much fanfare from Laurie, and overall the album went nowhere.
Though it was a great label in its day, Laurie Records was at the beginning of the end. There was very little promotion. I had heard that we realized some degree of sales on the U.S. west coast, but not much more than that. In New York we had a good friend in Jonathan Schwartz at WNEW FM (then in its infancy), who loved the album and gave it a lot of airplay. I still want to thank him for that. The original (vinyl) LP is hard to find, but the re-issue on CD isn't.
What is probably not well known is that Montage did perform live. When asked about it, Vance replied:
Oh yeah, we played live a lot. We would practice the live stuff in way-out places like ski lodges in northwestern New Jersey, to see how we'd be received by live (although small) audiences. But we also did Manhattan Center with The Vagrants (now known as "Mountain" - with Leslie West), Thompson Square Park in Greenwich Village and The Electric Circus, also in Manhattan.
I was nervous about The Electric Circus because it was a huge place that normally featured some pretty hard-rock bands, and I felt that we'd be too mellow for the crowd. But to my amazement, they were thrilled with every song we did. Our last song of the night was a cover of The Beatles' “Hey Jude.” At the end of that song the entire crowd was up to the edge of the stage, clapping their hands over their heads while they sang along with the "na-na-na" part. I couldn't believe my eyes and ears.
Since the album didn’t sell as well as it should have, Montage and Michael Brown parted ways. When asked if the band ever had any further contact with Brown, Vance stated:
No, other than a meeting I had with him in 1972. He had had some thoughts about working with me as a solo artist - possibly with Mercury Records - and toward that effort asked to borrow my only personal copy of the Montage album. Nothing ever came of what we discussed, and I never got my album back.
Sadly, due to the lack of commercial success (and other reasons as well), the group eventually broke up:
The main reason for the Montage break-up was that we had worked with Brown for a year on that album, rehearsing and doing the live act all around the metro New York City area - while never seeing enough money to survive. We couldn't hold out anymore, so we went our separate ways.
This leads to the inevitable question: Whatever became of the members of Montage?
Mike Smyth launched his own business in plumbing and heating, which became his permanent trade. He still lives in New Jersey with his wife of 35 years. They have two children who are grown up and married now, having children of their own. Yeah, Mike is a grandpa.
Lance Cornelius and Bob Steurer just seemed to disappear, and I have no knowledge of their whereabouts or what they're doing.
From 1970 to 1990 I stayed in the music business on my own. I did a lot of studio work - radio and TV commercials, vocals for other artists' works etc., and I switched instruments - from playing drums to playing keyboards. I loved working in the studio, and for years Minot Studios in White Plains (New York) almost became my second home.
My only record release was a 45-rpm single titled "Down U.S. Highway 200", (Mark Sameth) which was a corny but well orchestrated Bicentennial song on Janus Records in (obviously) 1976. Released under the fictitious name The Second Season, it was also recorded at Minot by owner and friend Ron Carran. There is one recording by me that was fully orchestrated and finished, but never released by me or anyone on any label. Someday I might see to it that it is.
In the early ‘80's my producer (Billy Heller) and I put together a band called The Vance Chapman Band. Took us all night to think up that one (ha), but Billy wanted my name up front for reasons pertaining to future possibilities. We were a five-piece, had a tour bus and played all over the Northeast for years. Our New York engagements included The Helmsley Palace, Tavern On The Green, Marriott Marquis, Grand Hyatt, Grand Central Station etc. At the time, we were the only band to play the Marriott Marquis (Times Square) two New Year's Eves in a row, as it was against their policy but it became a "by popular demand" thing.
Much of our work was in corporate events for General Foods, Nabisco, Colgate, Palmolive, etc. Colgate erected a full stage on the Colgate Pier for the Statue Of Liberty's 100th Anniversary Celebration in 1986, at which we were the featured band. I was very fortunate to be working with the best musicians/performers one could find anywhere, and the best part is that they found me.
Also in 1986, The Vince Chapman Band recorded a three-song demo of cover tunes in an effort to secure more corporate work, which paid quite well. Funny how things go - when people heard that tape, there became a substantial demand for personal copies of it. Just three songs; go figure.
The band split up in 1990 when individual goals took us in different directions, but I sure miss the times with those folks and all the fun we had for so long. I went back to my "stand-by" career in air conditioning and refrigeration. Before that it had only been a summer job for me so I could stay in music. I'm now retired and living in Florida with my wife Merry. We met in high school in 1964 and she has a musical background, too. We have an 8-track hard disc recorder, and we write and record stuff when the spirit moves us.
When asked about his thoughts on the Montage experience nowadays, Vance expressed mixed but overall happy feelings about it all.
I was very happy when Sundazed released the album on cd in 2001. If not for my brother calling me from California to tell me he saw the Montage CD at amazon.com, I'd never even known I had a CD out there!
I understand that it has caught on in Western Europe and in Scandinavia. I even did an interview with a radio show host in Norway last year, and it seemed odd to be talking about something I did in the late 1960s! But from the time I sang all of those songs and had my voice and pictures all over the world, to this day I have never received a single cent from any sales the album may have enjoyed, past or present. That seems odd, too.
[But] I realize now that my days with The Montage and the making of the album were a stepping-stone to the best years of my life. For me, the dissolution of The Montage was not the end of something, but only the beginning.
Even though The Montage isn’t as well known as The Left Banke or The Stories, their sole album has proven to be a bona fide cult classic. However, despite being reissued by Bam Caruso in the mid-‘80s, it’s proven to be elusive for decades. Even Michael Brown has made little if any reference to Montage in interviews over the years. Sundazed rectified this injustice in 2001 when they reissued the album on CD with bonus tracks. Now, finally, the album can be heard by the masses, a fate that it truly deserves. In fact, it’s even getting airplay again:
Some small good news is that the Montage album is selling and getting some airplay up in New Hampshire. Our daughter is a senior at UNH in Durham, and the radio station in Portsmouth is playing it. One of the DJs wants to do a phone interview with me. The college kids up there really love the album! Our daughter had nothing to do with it - she heard me singing "I Shall Call Her Mary" at a party she attended and was shocked. She learned of the radio airplay later.
Here’s hoping that kids of all ages will get to enjoy and appreciate Montage as a group, as an album, and as a concept. The music they made is as timeless as can be, and well worth remembering. |
